[bbc]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/technology-17111044

[RichyZ]

wtf we overcharge for texting and this shit happens

fuck you 3rd party app makers i want to get all the money!

[DoctorSalt]

They could charge whatever they want (hell, charge four times and they'd be losing $55.6 bn), either way they are making a fortune on something that is hella cheap.

[garry]

It seems ridiculous in this day and age to charge people 10p to send a message to someone else. They should have seen this coming years ago and just made it free to attract people to their network.

[CheeseMan]

Jesus, it always pisses me off when I see all these businessmen who either have their heads in the clouds or are too arrogant to realise what's going on.

Industry experts say operators can offset any losses through effective costing plans by mobile networks.

Yeah, you believe that. I mean, the music industry stopped the walkman didn't it? She'll be right, mate. She'll be right.

[mchapra]

Texting actually costs jack shit so they shouldn't be charging for it in the first place.

[NoDachi]

waa waa waa I'm no longer competitive quick someone write some legislation

[Alexak75]

Great, more "potential revenue" shit.

[Icedshot]

Quick, ban free messaging KILLING AMERICAN JOBS

[SweetSwifter]

So, a company that made this service, is now losing money because of another, better and cheaper service that is being offered.

Isn't that how the world works?

[DeeCeeTeeBee]

people dying caused us to lose revenue!!

we must outlaw people dying!! death is too good of a competitor to defeat!!

[JohnnyOnFlame]

(Potential Revenue-Revenue) is NOT Lost Revenue.
Also, my Carrier charges 15c (dolar) for infinite SMS a day, 15c for infinite internet a day.
Needless to say, I use a fuckton of SMS/Internet.

[Hruhf]

Well my provider provides free texts to people on the same network and the only people I text are on the same network so I'm happy.

[mrmr]

I remember hearing something once that each text message sent costs 99 times more than it cost the company to actually send the message.

[Dr. Fishtastic]

Text messages are to phone providers what Sodas are to fast-food joints. Both are ridiculously cheap and are usually charged 1000%+ markup

[Zezibesh]

DeeCeeTeeBee posted:

people dying caused us to lose revenue!!

we must outlaw people dying!! death is too good of a competitor to defeat!!

death has a monopoly on the dying industry

[y0haN]

Lost revenue but like hell will they ever lose profit. SMS markup is in the thousands of %... ridiculous.

[Protocol7]

They give people internet on their phones. Did they honestly not see this coming?

[TestECull]

..Boo hoo phone companies. Lemme go tune up the world's smallest violin real quick.

garry posted:

They should have seen this coming years ago and just made it free to attract people to their network.

That's pretty standard here in America. I've got free unlimited texting and have had it for years. Unlimited free calls, too, so long as those calls go to Verizon phones.

[DeanWinchester]

Notice how the article implies that this "loss" doesn't take into account the revenue made from mobile internet plans, which obviously went up.

[AugustBurnsRed]

I fucking hate when companies think potential revenue and lost revenue are the same thing.

Thats like mcdonalds saying they lose money when people only buy a sandwich instead of the whole meal.

[Karmah]

Good

[Contag]

garry posted:

It seems ridiculous in this day and age to charge people 10p to send a message to someone else. They should have seen this coming years ago and just made it free to attract people to their network.

I loathe that text messaging costs any non-negligible amount of money at all
it's not like there were infrastructure costs or any other overhead costs associated with telecommunications

[Trogdon]

my texting is $10 a month unlimited, though i don't text that much any more seeing as i'm in college.

[Political Gamer]

TestECull posted:

..Boo hoo phone companies. Lemme go tune up the world's smallest violin real quick.

That's pretty standard here in America. I've got free unlimited texting and have had it for years. Unlimited free calls, too, so long as those calls go to Verizon phones.

Even then we get raped up the ass with data fees even if we have "unlimited" plans.

[Mr. Agree]

garry posted:

It seems ridiculous in this day and age to charge people 10p to send a message to someone else. They should have seen this coming years ago and just made it free to attract people to their network.

True, but there are some great deals for me and people who text a lot. Even though Orange annoy the hell out of me now, £5 a month for unlimited texts is a nice package.

[Forumaster]

I don't use theses social messaging apps because:

1. Not all of my friends have smartphones
2. I'm sure that even if they did, the chances of all 100 or so installing the exact same one is relatively remote.

I'd rather pay my $15 a month for unlimited and be done with it.

[Canary]

I don't understand how they are losing money could someone explain?

I mean don't these apps use internet and the phone companies charge shitloads for internet, so how are they losing money?

[Psyke89]

Free and better service gaining ground to worse and paid service.
Film at 11.

[Gmod4ever]

Canary posted:

I don't understand how they are losing money could someone explain?

I mean don't these apps use internet and the phone companies charge shitloads for internet, so how are they losing money?

While Internet is usually more costly than texts, on a per-use basis, consider this.

Let's assume there is a Network A, which charges $60 a month for unlimited Internet usage, and $0.15 per text message using their service.

It would take 400 text messages, at $0.15 per message, to equal the same as the $60 for unlimited Internet. This is over a span of a business month, typically 30 days. This averages out to 13 texts a day. I don't personally own a phone with texting capabilities, but I know people who do - and a single texted conversation takes up about 10 texts, BY ITSELF, if not more. So 13 texts a day is a number easily achieved, and easily surpassed. What's more, according to a 2010 article on MSNBC.com, The Average American Teenager Sends and Receives 3,339 Texts Every Month. This would translate, at $0.15 a text, to $500 a month.

Once a person begins to text more than 400 times a month, it becomes cheaper to pay the $60 a month for unlimited Internet, and use a free-to-use texting app (like Facebook) on that Internet.

Assuming that Customer A sends 3339 texts a month, then the amount of POTENTIAL REVENUE Network A is losing to this customer is $440 a month, assuming Customer A uses the $60/month Internet as opposed to the $0.15/text plan.

And then this isn't even taking into account that most networks charge higher fees for texts that go long distances, and even more for international texts, whereas the unlimited Internet plan wouldn't be affected by distance.

That's where their potential revenue loss comes from.

[Canary]

Gmod4ever posted:

While Internet is usually more costly than texts, on a per-use basis, consider this.

Let's assume there is a Network A, which charges $60 a month for unlimited Internet usage, and $0.15 per text message using their service.

It would take 400 text messages, at $0.15 per message, to equal the same as the $60 for unlimited Internet. This is over a span of a business month, typically 30 days. This averages out to 13 texts a day. I don't personally own a phone with texting capabilities, but I know people who do - and a single texted conversation takes up about 10 texts, BY ITSELF, if not more. So 13 texts a day is a number easily achieved, and easily surpassed. What's more, according to a 2010 article on MSNBC.com, The Average American Teenager Sends and Receives 3,339 Texts Every Month. This would translate, at $0.15 a text, to $500 a month.

Once a person begins to text more than 400 times a month, it becomes cheaper to pay the $60 a month for unlimited Internet, and use a free-to-use texting app (like Facebook) on that Internet.

Assuming that Customer A sends 3339 texts a month, then the amount of POTENTIAL REVENUE Network A is losing to this customer is $440 a month, assuming Customer A uses the $60/month Internet as opposed to the $0.15/text plan.

And then this isn't even taking into account that most networks charge higher fees for texts that go long distances, and even more for international texts, whereas the unlimited Internet plan wouldn't be affected by distance.

That's where their potential revenue loss comes from.

Now I'm tempted to get internet.

But If you spend £10 on Orange you get thousands of free texts and 50MB of free internet..so now I'm confused still.

[smurfy]

What a shame ;_;

I am truely sorry for your lots

[Canary]

Canary posted:

Now I'm tempted to get internet.

But If you spend £10 on Orange you get thousands of free texts and 50MB of free internet..so now I'm confused still.

Just found out if I get an Orange extra online I can spend £5 and get 250MB for a month, I shall try that from now on.

[Brt5470]

SweetSwifter posted:

So, a company that made this service, is now losing money because of another, better and cheaper service that is being offered.

Isn't that how the world works?

Leave it to the American government to fix the "Free market"

They always do the right thing.

[Shocky]

Well currently I'm on Giffgaff in the UK, so if I top up 10 pound I get unlimited free texts (properly unlimited), unlimited internet (properly unlimited) and 250 mins of phone calls (hardly used). So I still use SMS all the time. And trust me, I send a lot of texts.

[Sir Whoopsalot]

Why charge so much anyway for texts? You're sending 140 bytes! That's right, bytes, you read that right. Not kilobytes, bytes.
It's kind of disgusting. Good thing I have a cheapo phone plan.

[oldeskoolfan]

Instead of "lost networks $13bn" it should be "saved the consumers $13bn".

[Legend286]

Can't wait for Ofcom to jump all over this shit and make texts free for everyone.

[squids_eye]

I use the facebook chat app thing instead of texting nowadays, it's a lot faster. It makes no difference to the phone company though so I'm on contract and I'm still technically paying for the 3000 texts a month that I never use.

[Gareth]

I can see why, at one point i was spending about £5 (50 texts) a day on credit just to text people. Switched to a contract with unlimited texts for £10 a month lol